Review: One Night Only
Appropriate Behavior (Desiree Akhavan, USA, 2014, 90 min)
UW Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall, Friday, November 21, 7:00pm»
Appropriate Behavior makes up for its flashback structure with strong individual scene work as Desiree Akhavan leads us through the ups and downs of starting and ending romantic (and just sexual) relationships, especially those that would never be approved by your family.
To be honest I was not looking forward to another indie exploration of hipster Brooklyn, but Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behavior is a breath of fresh air. While it certainly has its moments of post-mumblecore, post-Girls navel gazing, Akhavan is such an engaging screen presence and confident performer that I was more than willing to follow her character Shirin’s episodic forays into post-breakup hookups, self-deprecation, and Williamsburg malaise. While the flashback structure of the screenplay undercut the narrative momentum of the film, Appropriate Behavior is at its best when Akhavan allows individual scenes to take their time to show us the ups and downs of starting and ending romantic (and just sexual) relationships, especially those that would never be approved by your family.
Shirin is a bi-sexual thirty-something whom we meet as she is packing up to move out from the apartment she shared with her now ex-girlfriend, Maxine (Rebecca Henderson). She appears to be the black sheep in a well-to-do family of Iranian immigrants; her brother Ali (Arian Moyaed) is a successful urologist (perhaps too enthusiastic about his field, in fact), and her traditional parents are naturally waiting for her to find a boyfriend. Unable to turn to her family for emotional support after a failed lesbian relationship, she turns to her friend Crystal (Halley Feiffer), who is more than willing to console Shirin when she is not busy flirting with every male she meets. The dramatic tension moving forward concerns Shirin’s efforts to forge a new post-Maxine life as she also contemplates being more open with her family about her sexuality.
At the UW Cinematheque blog, Mike King introduces us to Akhavan’s previous work, including The Slope, her web series about “superficial, homophobic lesbians.” King points out that Akhavan is one of several recent independent filmmakers to have “cut her teeth in bite-sized chunks online.” The term “bite-sized” stood out for me as I read King’s helpful introduction, because the episodic structure of Appropriate Behavior sometimes felt like a series of self-contained short films rather than a three act feature film. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Akhavan has a knack for scene development, and she works well with actors to move between dramatic beats. When Shirin attempts a threesome with a young professional Brooklyn couple, all three points of dramatic tension between Shirin and the couple are clearly articulated without much dialogue. Other moments, however, seem more like short online skits, like Shirin’s visit to a lingerie shop to replace the panties that Maxine deliberately destroyed during the break-up fight, where Shirin discovers the self-empowerment of wearing a bra.
Perhaps the best scene work is in the interplay between Shirin and Maxine at different points in their relationship. But most of this is in flashback so it takes us away Shirin’s post-breakup life for a significant amount of screen time. The episodic structure does allow Akhavan to shift gears and focus on different conflicts at different points in the film without seeming too forced. Some scenes focus on the personal politics of lesbianism and bi-sexuality; others focus on the personal politics of homosexuality within a traditional Persian family. Part of me would have preferred a stronger central narrative, but the lack of one big dramatic climax does permit Akhavan to pursue several smaller epiphanies for Shirin.
The smaller epiphanies include a very interesting moment in Shirin’s relationship with her family. Without giving too much away, the underplayed discussion between Shirin and her mother near the end is far more thought provoking than a contrived dramatic showdown. When the film does draw to a close, it has to cue you with some pretty overt “we’re just going to end it here” music over a long close up, because dramatically speaking the ending is not very satisfying. But one does get the sense that Shirin is starting to move in the right direction, even if we don’t get to see the results.
I have very little interest in whether Akhavan is the next Lena Dunham. But the news that Akhavan has been cast in season four of Girls might prompt me to finally watch an episode or two (I’d be more likely to catch up on The Slope, first). I just hope that Akhavan is also permitted to continue to develop her craft behind the camera as well, and I look forward to her next project, wherever it may appear.
